Late Huns in the Carpathian

Late Huns in the Carpathian basin The European Hun Empire, which determinates the late ancient European politics, established its centre in the Carpathian basin, from where Hun Emperors governed both the Eastern and Western wings. 1 The late ancient chronicles gave us a detailed report on Attila’s deeds and campaigns. Unfortunately, only some fragments remained on those Huns, who settled down in the Carpathian basin. In the second half of the 19th century some Western-European historians created a special theory on the fast disappearance of the Huns from there, but it lacked any real evidences. In my paper I am trying exploring the traces of the Huns in the Carpathian basin or former Hungarian Kingdom. I recline upon some late ancient sources and Hungarian historical chronicles of Middle Ages, reports of contemporary Byzantine and Gothic sources and I used archaeological findings and anthropological surveys. Introduction Regarding some questions of the Late Huns some dogmas and misbelieves, which have been created in the 19th century, make orientations difficult for the historians. Although some Hungarian scholars wanted to make the question of the history of the late Huns clear using own Medieval Hungarian sources, but their theories were not taken into consideration by academic scholars. In the 21st century – using modern technology and discovering huge amount archaeological findings and historical sources - we need to rethink the life and history of the Late Huns in the Carpathian basin. The first Hungarian royal clan, or Arpad traditionally originated from Scythia or Maeotis- swamp, and it was the centre of Attila’s youngest son, Irnek, who settled down there after the great Gothic and Hunnic war in 454. It was an ancient centre of steppe people, from Cimmerians to the Hungarians. Arpad, the great-prince of Hungary was the descendant of Attila. Every historical source and legal document of that time proved our historical traditions. After 1850, when the Hungarians lost war against the Habsburgs, the winning Austrian officials wanted to change the Hungarian identity and cancelled the heroic history of the rebellious Magyars and tore the Hungarians from their “original” alliances or Turks forcing them into an artificial, so called “Finno-Ugrian” relationship. The Hungarians “received” not only a new linguistic theory from the Austrians, but also Hunfalvy who violently changed the ancient history of the Huns and Hungarians using the publications of some German positivist historians. He stated that the Huns –after the Battle of Nedao in 454 - suddenly disappeared from the Carpathian-basin without leaving any traces, and their territory was occupied by German or Gothic “nation”. His theory was based upon Jordanes who reported the following: “After Ellac had been slain, his remaining brothers were driven fleeing to near the shore of the Sea of Pontus, where we have said the Goths first settled.” 2 Jordanes even says that Hernac, the youngest son of 1 The western wing stretches from present-day Austria to Rhone-river, the eastern wing stretches from Tisa-river to Caucasus-mountain. 2 http://www.harbornet.com/folks/theedrich/Goths/Goths2.htm Jordanes, Getica L. 263. Attila settled down far Scythia (today: Dagestan) 3. It accedes to the Hungarian chronicles 4 which recorded Attila’s most favourite son (Chaba) and his followers, namely 15 thousand men, had returned to his relatives to Scythia 5. „So Chaba and his sixty brothers and their 15 thousand men went to his uncle, Honorius Emperor, who ruled the Eastern Romanian throne of that time. But Honorius wanted to settle down them in Greeceland. They didn’t stay there, but returned to Scythia, centre of ancestor’s land to live there. ” 6 Some German and Hungarian historians claimed that along with Chaba the whole population of the Huns left the Carpathian-basin; they did not consider the fact of the sources, which tells that only the royal descendants and their guides fled eastward, so the Huns could leave their homeland. Based upon this theory, each finding from the second half of the 5th century was identified as Gepids by archaeologists, although the treasures show steppe impacts. After the Battle of Nedao The most Hungarian historians do not accept the reports of the Medieval Hungarian sources which recorded surviving Huns in the Carpathian basin. Despite of its historical concept, Jordanes mentioned some groups of Huns and their allied tribes, Sarmatians, there. First of all, let us investigate Jordanes’s records on the history of the Carpathian basin. His main work, called Getica, reported the events after the death of Attila in details. The main part deals with only those parts of the Carpathian basin which were under control of the former Roman Empire. The Hungarian historian, Ferenc Salamon, emphasises that the late ancient sources usually focused on two big territories – Pannonia and Illyricum, which were under foreign (Goth and Gepid) occupations. Jordanes says that the allied forces or Goth-Gepids and Huns-Sarmatians wanted to obtain dominion over the Hunnic territories and they fought near a so-called Nedao-river around 454, where Hunnic forces lost. Nobody knows exactly, where this battle took places, only Tarihi Üngürüs supposes that it must happened near the former Hunnic capital, or Sicambria and says that the bet of the battle was the occupation of Pannonia. 7 It is likely that the place was close to Tarnokvolgy, or the present-day Kajaszo 8, where big Hunnic troops won over Roman forces in the end of the 4th century. 9 3 In the late ancient time two places are called Lesser-Scythia. One is modern Dagestan. Strabon recorded when Scythians moved westward and reached Danube-delta, this territory got the same name or Lesser Scythia. 4 Hungarian historical chronicles of the Middle Ages as Kezai Simon’s chronicle, Chronicum Pictum and Thuroczy-chronicle 5 Hernac, the younger son of Attila, with his followers, chose a home in the most distant part of Lesser Scythia. Jordanes, L. 266. http://www.harbornet.com/folks/theedrich/Goths/Goths2.htm 6 Chronica Pictum, 20. 7 Salamon, 1882. 1. Tarihi Üngürüs, 112-113. 8 Kajaszo is a small village in Fejer country, near Martonvasar city. 9 Chronica Pictum, 8. Although lots of historians read from a short report that the Nedao battle sealed the fate of the Huns in the Carpathian basin, Jordanes mentions that it was not the only one battle between the two parts but it was the beginning of the long-lasting Hunnic-Gothic war. Jordanes himself enumerated at least two big Hunnic campaigns against the Goths, led by Dengizich, the second son of Attila. One of them directed to Bassiana: „When Dengizich, king of the Huns, a son of Attila, learned this, he gathered to him the few who still seemed to have remained under his sway, namely, the Ultzinzures, and Angisciri, the Bittugures and the Bardores. Coming to Bassiana, a city of Pannonia.” 10 Because Dengizich was not able to get back the former Hunnic territories, Jordanes summarised the Gothic-Hunnic war in the following way ”the tribe of the Huns had finally been subdued by the Goths.” 11 It does not mean that the Huns moved or disappeared from there in masses but that they had been subdued by foreign powers and they lost chief-power in that region. According to Jordanes, Salamon thought that not only the whole territories of Carpathian basin became subdued by the Goths, but also Pannonia and later Moesia, Dacia, or the southern part of the former Roman provinces. Historians consider Pannonia as a Gothic „ethnic” territory where German tribes despised their feet after the collapse of the Great European Hunnic Empire. Actually, the Goths and Gepids and later the Longobards did not form a clear ethnic block because Scythians, Celts, Romans and Huns lived among them who allied in some military purposes. Ammianus Marcellinus mentioned that Sarmatians and Quads allied against the Romans in the middle of the 4th century. 12 We must pay attention to the fact that the Goths reaching the Eastern-European Plain accepted the Scythian way of life, the customs, the clothing and the military tactics. That is why they were called Scythians. 13 The strong Scythian impact is reflected on their material culture. Unfortunately, in the last century some scholars believed that the Goths were not influenced by the Scythians but it was the evidence of the German people’s highly developed art. 14 The presence of the Huns in the Carpathian basin was proved by Frankish chronicles. Peter Király has published some historical sources which dealt with inhabitants of Pannonia in the course of the 6th century. According to a Meroving source, in the year of 561/562 Hungari lived there. 15 It is not the only one data on Hungari or Hungarus, because other western sources also mentioned them under such names! The presence of Hungarus proves not only that Huns survived and lived continuously after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire, but also that Hungarians came to the Carpathian basin at last along with the Huns in the 4th century. 10 Jordanes, Getica LIII. 263. Bassiana was a late ancient city in Pannonia Secunda, or southern part of former Hungarian Kingdom. 11 Jordanes, Getica, LIII. 273. 12 Ammianus Marcelinus, 17:12 13 Wolfram, 1988. 28. 14 Bóna, 1974. 48-49. 15 Király, 2006. 117. Connecting to Dengizich’s western invasion, nobody realised a very important point of view: he reached Pannonia or the territory beyond the river Danube that no foreign troops wanted to stop him, but according to some historians in some in-between lands– beyond the river Tisa or Transsylvania - Gepids, or the enemy of the Huns lived. However, that he passed over unimpeded up to the Danube means that alliance tribes must have lived in those territories.

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